Bartlett strikes before rain stops Punjab v KKR with hosts on 25 for two 2

Punjab Kings Aussie fast bowler Xavier Bartlett picked up two early wickets before rain came down during the fourth over to chase the players from the field in their Tata IPL match against the Kolkata Knight Riders at Eden Gardens in Kolkata on Monday night.

The Knight Riders were on 25 for two after 3.4 overs, with captain Ajinkya Rahane (8no) and Angkrish Raghuvanshi (7no), at the crease when the drizzle that had been about got harder and forced them off.

But most of the action came in just the second over, when Bartlett seemed to have the ball on a string, seeming past the outside edge of opener Finn Allen’s (6) bat twice, before finding the outside edge to keeper Prabhsimran Singh on the third time of asking.

New batter Cameron Green (4) luckily edged his first ball past the slip cordon for a boundary, but wasn’t so lucky the second as Bartlett found the edge again through to Singh, leaving the Knight Riders in early trouble on 16 for two

With the whole field now being covered, the players will hope that the rain eases and that they can get a game in later in the evening.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERS: Finn Allen, Ajinkya Rahane (capt), Cameron Green, Angkrish Raghuvanshi (wk), Rovman Powell, Rinku Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Anukul Roy, Navdeep Saini, Vaibhav Arora, Kartik Tyagi

PUNJAB KINGS: Prabhsimran Singh (wk), Cooper Connolly, Shreyas Iyer (capt), Nehal Wadhera, Shashank Singh, Marcus Stoinis, Marco Jansen, Xavier Bartlett, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Arshdeep Singh, Yuzvendra Chahal